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Richard Strauss In High Fidelity
- Also Sprach Zarathustra
- Ein Heldenleben
1954 Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Fritz Reiner Conducting
2004 RCA Living Stereo Hybrid SACD BMG Classics

by server alliance

Amazon.com Customer Review
A timely celebration of a "double" 50-year anniversary., November 15,
2004
Reviewer: Bob Zeidler (Charlton, MA United States)
A half century ago, I was a junior in high school. We used to have
these gatherings called "assemblies," where the principal would
collect the entire student body in the auditorium (no excuses
allowed!) for an event of more than passing importance. At this late
date, I can only remember a small handful of them: the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II, President Truman relieving General MacArthur of
his command. Oh, and one where two fellows from Ampex came to our high
school to give a little demonstration of something called
"stereophonic sound," using, needless to say, an Ampex tape recorder.

And the music for this demonstration? It was the brief opening
prologue ("Sunrise") from Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra,"
in this very same Reiner/Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording. This
was a "sneak preview to end all sneak previews," inasmuch as the
monophonic LP ("New Orthophonic," I believe it was called) hadn't even
been released at that early date. And, needless to say, this
impressionable teenager was suitably impressed. So much so that, in
the years to come, I acquired three LPs of the performance: the
original monophonic LP, then the Living Stereo LP a few years later,
and eventually, when the stereo LP had seen its better days, the
Dynagroove rerelease (something I'd just as soon forget). I never did
go the reel-to-reel route, and, when CDs eventually made their
appearance, I opted for other performances of these two Strauss works
rather than the earlier conventional Living Stereo CD release. But I
always did have fond memories of that particular reel-to-reel tape
demonstration back in '54; it was a direct copy of the 30ips master
tape, and not the 7.5ips "consumer" version that came out shortly
thereafter.

With BMG now releasing half-century-old Living Stereo classics as
hybrid SACDs (10 at present, with surely more on the way), it was easy
for me to select this recording as one of the first to sample. I was
more than pleasantly surprised; just listening to the "Also Sprach
Zarathustra" prologue had the effect of turning the clock back 50
years; truly a trip down Memory Lane!

In a phrase, I wasn't disappointed. Even listening to the conventional
CD layer, it was easy to get the sense that there I was again,
listening to the 30ips master tape. Even with headphones, I heard no
evidence of tape hiss; just beautifully balanced stereo sound with a
tremendous sense of not only left-to-right spatial array but depth as
well. (This is particularly evident in "The hero's battlefield"
segment of "Ein Heldenleben," where the initial muted trumpet fanfares
sound as if they are coming from well behind the orchestra.)
Throughout both massive tone poems, the music is well-served by RCA's
"minimalistic" microphoning, with just two mikes picking up the sound
field, and every single instrumental voice (and there are many of
them) can clearly be heard. (Sir Thomas Beecham, that evergreen source
of bon mots, reserved one of his best for "Ein Heldenleben" when he
wrote that "I once spent a couple of days in a train with a German
friend. We amused ourselves by discovering how many notes we could
take out of 'Ein Heldenleben' and leave the music essentially intact.
By the time we finished we had taken out fifteen thousand.")

As for Reiner's interpretations, perhaps the simplest way of putting
it is that there is no time in the last half century that I can recall
when these two performances were NOT included in EVERY "essential
recordings" discography (even when the sound quality was not as it is
here, in the hybrid SACD release). Reiner had a way of not
oversentimentalizing these two works, as if they had been the products
of one of the world's greatest egos, which, in fact, they were:
Strauss made no bones about himself being the hero of "Ein Heldenleben.
" Reiner keeps things moving along, lest they bog down for the empty
rhetoric that they can often be in lesser hands.

A century ago, when Strauss had been the most famous composer who was
also a conductor and Gustav Mahler had been the most famous conductor
who was also a composer, audiences couldn't get enough of the Strauss
tone poems. (I think, in fact, that the record will show that Mahler
conducted Strauss's tone poems more frequently than he did his own
symphonies!)

And a half-century ago, when I had been in my musical adolescence, so
to speak, I too couldn't get enough of them. But they haven't worn all
that well in the intervening years. Now, considerably older and
modestly wiser, I can only take them in infrequent doses. (Perhaps
I've simply taken Strauss at his word when he described himself as "a
first-rate second-rate composer.") And, fortunately for this now-jaded
me, these Reiner performances, long perfect in everything but sound
quality, have arrived with, finally, sound quality that matches the
performances.

I have every expectation that future "essential recordings"
discographies will continue to include these performances, now with
this newly-refurbished sound quality that is the match of any.



Historic stereo recordings of Richard Strauss, March 27, 2006
Reviewer: Robert E. Nylund (Ft. Wayne, Indiana United States)
Fritz Reiner (1888-1963) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were among the first musicians in the U.S. to make commercial streophonic recordings, in March 1954 in Chicago's historic Orchestra Hall. (A few stereo recordings were made by Thor Johnson and the Cincinnati Symphony in 1953 by Remington and given some limited release on tapes and discs.)

In 1954, RCA Victor taped two extended masterpieces by the German composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949), using a pioneering triple-track stereo tape system. RCA used separate equipment at the recording sessions in Orchestra Hall, one for the conventional monaural recordings and one for the stereo recordings. Intended to be experimental recordings, the stereo versions first appeared on home reel-to-reel tapes within a year. With the advent of the Westrex stereo cutting system, the recordings were first issued on discs in 1958 as part of RCA's highly-acclaimed "Living Stereo" series.

Reiner had the advantage of clearly understanding Richard Strauss and his music because the two musicians were close friends and corresponded until shortly before Strass died in late 1949. Strauss, who himself made some experimental high fidelity recordings of his major works in 1944 with the Vienna Philharmonic, greatly admired what Reiner achieved. He would have certainly applauded these definitive, first stereo recordings of two of his extended symphonic poems.

"Also sprach Zarathustra" was based on the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and is a very deep, intense, often melancholy work with several very spectacular musical sequences, including a hypnotic waltz sequence. Scored for very large orchestra, the symphonic poem runs continuously and was often "ruined" by LP recordings because it was necessary to split the music near the halfway point. The CD version does not have this annoying interruption. Instead, we can thoroughly enjoy this very exciting performance, superbly played by the Chicago musicians. It is always a treat, too, to hear what happens AFTER the famous opening minutes of the work, which became so famous when Stanley Kubrick used it in his 1968 science fiction epic "2001: A Space Odyssey."

We know that Fritz Reiner was a perfectionist and he sought very high standards. Arturo Toscanini was known for occasional outbursts when musicians failed to play their best; Toscanini admired Reiner and invited him to guest conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Reiner, however, could absolutely terrify musicians as he sought the highest standards in playing; sometimes he used anger and other times he used biting sarcasm. The excellence which both Reiner and Toscanini sought from their orchestras are quite apparent in the numerous outstanding recordings they made.

Toscanini did not particularly enjoy making recordings, especially before the invention of magnetic tape. On the other hand, Reiner readily embraced recording and determined to leave lasting documents of the high standards he sought. This is quite apparent in "Also sprach Zarathustra." The recording still amazes us, both for its remarkably high quality sound and the intensity of the performance.

A similar treasure is realized in Strauss' "Ein Heldenleben" or "A Hero's Life." Filled with quotes from earlier Strauss works, this is an intense, powerful, and dramatic work that seems something of an ego trip for the composer since he is clearly the "hero" of the story. However, Strauss may actually be celebrating his accomplishments and achievements, often as he sought to please his wife Pauline, who clearly expected nothing but the best from her husband.

The terrifying battle sequence remains a high point of this extended work and, fortunately, we can hear it without the annoying interruption that often occurred on LPs in the middle of the spectacular music with its heavy use of percussion. Once again, the music is continuous and did not lend itself to the 33-1/3 rpm discs. Reiner's powerful performance compares well with the much-admired performances by Willem Mengelburg and the New York Philharmonic (1928 for Victor) and Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic (1958 for Capitol).



Amazon.com Customer Review
SuperAudio shows off R. Strauss, Reiner, & Chicago, October 21, 2004
Reviewer: Dan Fee "music fan aka drdanfee" (Berkeley, CA USA)
This master tape was originally made in 1954 in Symphony Hall in
Chicago. RCA was experimenting with multichannel sound, in two or
three channels, depending. This superaudio version encodes these
master tapes directly into the new 24-bit digital format, sampling the
signal and coding it digitally, over a million times per second. Both
of these masterpieces for large orchestra get played to the nines, and
then some, by the great Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony in one
of their several golden periods.

In his era, Reiner may have never gotten his full musical credit. He
was often regarded as very, very good; but too much of a standardized
middle-of-the-road interpreter. Hearing these again and again over the
following years, almost everybody began to realize what a true master
he was, especially in repertoire that he found most congenial. His
Richard Strauss tone poems are tops. The orchestra is brilliant and
warm and solid in every department. The master tape captures it all,
and Reiner's tempos and pacing are so exactly suited to both immediate
passages and an overall conception of each work that you don't notice
them at all. You are left drinking in the music. Just watch those
calories.

It is only when you hear other, poorer performances that you remember
that Richard Strauss was generally regarded as a genius who wrote
second-tier music. He even thought he was a little below the absolute
highest among the composers. Strauss himself once said that his music
should be able to describe a room exactly, down to the silverware on
the linen table cloth. Reiner gives his Richard Strauss the sort of
attention that brushes away all the kitch, and incisively brings this
late Romantic-era descriptive music to life as if there were nothing
to it.

You will probably be using this disc to show off your new SACD system,
if you have one. You will also be getting one of the greatest
recordings ever made of these particular tone poems. What's not to
like? Highly, highly recommended for both sound and for incredible

Спасибо! Очень рад этой пластинке! Вообше, даешь целиком серию Living Stereo SACDs!!!???

всю не потяну... но потихоньку скоро начнёмс и RCA Living Stereo SACD-рипы релизить

может кто в торрент положит?

OlCh одумается и выложит в торренте!

Мегаспасибо тебе OlCh!
Заслушал и охренел! Хочу купить оригинальный SACD!
Фантастика!
Living Stereo рулит нереально!

Ужо фсе чики-пуки )

может кто пропустил этот релиз Topic Link: Richard Strauss - Herbert vo... Philharmoniker 4CD
там исполняет Herbert von Karajan - Berliner Philharmoniker

а если кому совсем интересно, то маю ещё один вариант - 1959 Herbert von Karajan - Wiener Philharmoniker, при чем из великолепной серии Decca Legeds - Legendary Performances